Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 1974 and 1975... Nalanda's star
All-rounder Anura Ranasinghe is not with the cricketing fraternity these
days (he died a few years back), he earned his eternal rest after some
great cricketing deeds. First of all, Anura Ranasinghe was picked by the
umpires as Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year for two years
in-a-row when the contest was sponsored by P. G. Martins.

Anura Ranasinghe

After his school cricket career had ended, Ranasinghe did not waste
time and he went into English League Cricket. In an article titled
"Cricket Cavaliers", Anura Ranasinghe was featured along with Kerry
Packerman, Jim Allen and West Indian Lookhart Sebastian for being the
most prominent players in the Lancashire and Chesire Leagues for Hyde
Cricket Club.

In the Lancashire and Chesire Leagues, Anura Ranasinghe headed the
batting averages with 82.80 one season.

In April 1974, eighteen-year-old Ranasinghe who figured prominently
for Nalanda and Bloomfield C and AC in that cricket season, was picked
"Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year" by a panel of judges headed by the
then Minister of Fisheries - George Rajapakse, a top cricketer who
captained Royal in his day.

There were many cricketers the judges considered, but Ranasinghe, by
virtue of his success not only in school cricket, but club cricket as
well, clinched the title. The opinion was that Ranasinghe, as a
schoolboy then, had already shown the potential of a being a National
cricketer.

Ranasinghe fine performances

Many fine performances that season brought Ranasinghe another award -
Best All-rounder.

Royalist Prasanna Kariyawasam, who that season was among the runs,
was picked as the Best Batsman.

St. Sebastian's Susil Fernando who was in splendid form with the bat
that season, topping the 1000-run mark, challenged Kariyawasam, but had
to be content with the Runners-up position.

The Best Bowler's award went to Priyalal Perera of Ananda College who
claimed over 50 wickets that season ahead of Wesley's Dayalan
Sellamuttu.

Prince of Wales star All-rounder Hemal Mendis who was known for his
fine fielding, was picked as the Best Fielder and the runner-up was St.
Anthony's Katugastota cricketer Kevin Balthazaar.

The Observer - P. G. Martin Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 1974:
Anura Ranasinghe of Nalanda.

Lanka Perera's superior wicket-keeping was given the preference and
he was picked as the Best Fielder. Lalith Ratnayake was picked as
runner-up.

Outstation Star

The judges felt that the award for the Outstation Star cricketer
should be kept strictly to the lesser known schools in the outstations
as an incentive for the players in those schools. Consequently
cricketers from Trinity College, Kandy, St. Anthony's College,
Katugastota were not considered for this award as they have regular
fixtures with the better known schools in Colombo. Schools like
Dharmapala, Pannipitiya, Prince of Wales and St. Sebastian's of Moratuwa
and other schools that came into the Colombo Zones too were not
considered.

Of the lot, Ishak Sahabdeen's allround performances that season was
given due recognition and he was picked as the Best Outstation Schoolboy
Cricketer of the Year.

The judges also gave due recognition to the bowling performances of
Jaffna Central's R. Naguleswaran and he was picked as runner-up. Same
year number two and Anura Ranasinghe continued his fine run and it was
two-in-a-row for the star All-rounder Anura Ranasinghe in the
Observer-P. G. Martin's Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Contest.

The panel of judges headed by George Rajapakse - the Minister of
Fisheries made this decision. The other members of the panel of judges
were: Camillus Perera, K. T. Ponnambalam, Royle Barthelot, H.C.
Felsinger and Errol Seneviratne.

Anura Ranasinghe turned out to be an automatic choice for the coveted
honour as he was unquestionably the outstanding cricketer among the
schools. His batting and bowling that season was top grade.

He was the outstanding schoolboy cricketer and he was picked to
represent Sri Lanka against the West Indies in February that year while
still in school. He also won the award for the Best All-rounder for the
second successive year.

For the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Contest, the judges as usual,
considered sportsmanship on and off the field, besides the performance
of the cricketers. For the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year, the judges
considered the performances during that year of: Anura Ranasinghe
(Nalanda), Susil Fernando (St. Sebastian's, Moratuwa), Sidath Wettimuny
(Ananda College), P. Kariyawasam (Royal College) and Rohan Perera
(Trinity College).

Out of five cricketers who came into the final round, Anura
Ranasinghe was unanimously picked as the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of
the Year.

Best Batsman

The same procedure was followed in deciding the sectional winners:

For the best Batsman's award, those who came into the semi-final
round were: Sidath Wettimuny (Ananda College), Prasanna Kariyawasam
(Royal College), Rohan Wijesinghe (St. Joseph's College), Mohan de Silva
(S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavinia), Wirantha Fernando (Prince of Wales
College), Susil Fernando (St. Sebastian's Moratuwa), F.R.R. Arthur
(Trinity College), Ishak Sahabdeen (St. Sylvester's College, Kandy),
Dushan Soza (St. Joseph's College). For the final round, Ganeshan,
Sahabdeen and Rohan Perera were considered and of them Ganeshan was
picked as the Best Bowler. He had taken over 50 wickets in the 1974-75
season. Sahabdeen was picked as runner-up.